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Women's Status and Ordination As Elders Or Bishops in the Early Church, Reformation, and Post-Reformation Eras P Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Faculty Publications Church History 7-2013 Women's Status and Ordination as Elders or Bishops in the Early Church, Reformation, and Post-Reformation Eras P. Gerard Damsteegt Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/church-history-pubs Part of the History of Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Damsteegt, P. Gerard, "Women's Status and Ordination as Elders or Bishops in the Early Church, Reformation, and Post-Reformation Eras" (2013). Faculty Publications. Paper 70. http://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/church-history-pubs/70 This Presentation is brought to you for free and open access by the Church History at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WOMEN’S STATUS AND ORDINATION AS ELDERS OR BISHOPS IN THE EARLY CHURCH, REFORMATION, AND POST-REFORMATION ERAS P. Gerard Damsteegt, Dr. Theol. Andrews University Theology of Ordination Study Committee July 2013 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3 Status of Women Ordination in Early Church era before Nicea (AD 325) .......... 4 John the Revelator...................................................................................................... 4 Irenaeus ................................................................................................................... 5 Tertullian ................................................................................................................... 6 Origen ................................................................................................................. 10 Firmillian ................................................................................................................. 10 Didascalia Apostolorum .......................................................................................... 12 Status of Women and Ordination in Early Church era after 325 ......................... 12 Women Presbyters among Heretical Movements... ................................................. 12 Women Presbyters in Mainline Churches... ............................................................. 17 Position of Post-Nicene Church Fathers on Women in Ministry ............................ 25 Status of Women and Ordination in Reformation and Post-Reformation Eras ... 26 Women’s status and ordination in Martin Luther .................................................... 27 Women’s status and ordination in John Calvin ....................................................... 30 Women’s status and ordination in John Wesley ...................................................... 37 Women’s status and ordination in early Adventist publications ............................. 39 Summary and Conclusion .......................................................................................... 40 2 3 WOMEN’S STATUS AND ORDINATION AS ELDERS OR BISHOPS IN THE EARLY CHURCH, REFORMATION, AND POST REFORMATION ERAS Introduction This paper will investigate the views of the status of women in the church and whether women were ordained as elders, bishops, or priests in certain periods of the history of the Christian Church.1 The main focus of this paper will be on the Early Church, the Reformation, and Post-Reformation eras. The sources for the early church are limited to the early church fathers, and for the Reformers to their commentaries on the Bible. Martin Luther and John Calvin have been chosen because of their emphasis on the Bible as the rule for doctrine and practice, which was adopted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. John Wesley was selected as representing Methodism, the practices of which strongly impacted Adventist pioneers. The ordination of deaconesses will not be discussed in this paper.2 This paper deals only with passages which clearly affirm women priests or presbyters. One should be aware that the word “presbytera” describing a woman can refer to an older/elder 1 My graduate assistant, Dojcin Zivadinovic, has been very helpful in locating many of the sources in this paper. 2 It is a known fact that women served as deaconesses in churches from early centuries onwards until today. The position of a diaconate—the nature of which is not always clear—is quite different from an attempted ordination of women as priests. The office of a “deacon” can include various branches of Christian “help” (diaconia) and does not necessarily imply the position of headship and church governance. Women deacons were considered as helpers and not church leaders in the early Church. The apostle Paul recommend one of them to the church in Rome as “Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant (diakonos) of the Church at Cenchrae, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and assist her in whatever business she has need of you, for indeed she has been a helper of many and of myself also” (Romans 16:1). Centuries later the Apostolic Constitutions 3.26.1-2 (ca. AD 375) stated: "Choose as a deaconess a faithful and holy woman for the ministry of women. For we need a female deaconess for many things, first, when women are baptized, the deacons only anoint their forehead with holy oil, and after the deaconess spreads it [all over] on them. For it is not proper that women be seen by men.” Ibid., 8.28.6: “A deaconess does not bless or do any of the things priests and deacons do. She just takes care of the doors and ministers when women are baptized, for the sake of propriety.” The Council of Nicea, Canon 19 (AD 325) stated: “We have mentioned the deaconesses, who are enrolled in this position, but since they have not received any imposition of hands at all, they are surely to be numbered among the laity.” For more data on the abundant practice of women deaconesses, see Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek, Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), 25-162. 3 4 woman or an older/elder widow as in 1 Tim 5:2, or it can refer to a wife of a church elder, as “episcopa” was used for the wife of a bishop, and in the case of “deaconissa” for the wife of a deacon.3 Status of Women Ordination in Early Church Era Before Nicea (AD 325) This chapter focuses on writers who mentioned women who had some function in the early Christian congregations from the time of John the Revelator until the Council of Nicea in AD 325. It is possible that more women were involved in the leadership of the church, but due to the scarcity of materials, the evidence is limited to the writers whose works have survived the many centuries of Christian history. John the Revelator (ca. 95) The Book of Revelation mentioned a self-proclaimed prophetess, \who was like the Old Testament “Jezebel,” who exercised leadership and authoritative “teaching” (didasko) in the church of Thyatira, a city 100 miles away from Ephesus (Rev 2:14). The impact of her teachings resulted in immoral behavior and eating of food sacrificed to idols. The Scripture sharply rebuked this church for allowing the leadership of this woman. Later in Revelation the church is warned about a great controversy between a pure woman, representing the true church, and an immoral woman, representing the false church. The immoral woman leads the governments of the world in a final battle against God’s people for world dominance (Rev. 12, 17). These examples show that the Bible does not tolerate this kind of leadership in the church. Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. 180) The first mention of women as performing the duty of a presbyter (elder)4 in the post- Apostolic time is found among the gnostic Christians. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, told of a certain gnostic magician, Marcus, who allowed women to consecrate the wine during the Eucharist. 3 Gregory the Great in his Dialogues (written ca. AD 590) told of a priest, Nursinus, who from the time of his ordination, loved his “presbytera” as a sister, but avoided sharing a bed with her. (Gregory, Dialogues 4:11, ed. Edmund Gardner, London: 1911, p. 190). The Council of Tours in 567 ruled: “If a presbyter be found with his ‘presbytera’ or a deacon with his ‘deaconissa’ or a subdeacon with his ‘subdeaconissa,’ he must be considered excommunicated for a full year and removed from every clerical office.” Canon 13 of Tours said: “If an ‘episcopus’ does not have an ‘episcopa,’ let no throng of women follow him.” 4 5 But there is another among these heretics, Marcus by name, who … is a perfect adept in magical impostures, and by this means drawing away a great number of men, and not a few women, he has induced them to join themselves to him, as to one who is possessed of the greatest knowledge and perfection, and who has received the highest power from the invisible and ineffable regions above…. Pretending to consecrate cups mixed with wine, and protracting to great length the word of invocation, he contrives to give them a purple and reddish colour…. [H]anding mixed cups to the women, he bids them consecrate these in his presence. When this has been done, he himself produces another cup of much larger size than that which the deluded woman has consecrated, and pouring from the smaller one consecrated by the woman into that which has been brought forward by himself … he then appears a worker of wonders
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